On being alone but together ...

My father used to tell us that the best day of his life was when they invented the Walkman because from that day on the 4 kids (yes, there were 4 of us) just put on our headphones and bopped away silently in the backseat and through the house instead of talking. I always found it insulting that he wouldn't enjoy every moment of conversing with his kids. Now I have kids. Now I get it! Well, sort of ... Last year, when my youngest finally moved into the age where he could have a connected device and headphones, I totally got where my dad was coming from. Suddenly those car trips became peaceful, allowing me to enjoy my retro 80's hair metal without the non-stop complaints. Allowing me to carry on conversation with my fellow adult passengers without too much self-censoring (my language can get salty when I'm behind the wheel). Finally after years of catering to the needs of, and conversing with, young kids I was free to generally act like an adult - I had actually forgotte